


Cayde's "Double"

by RosieSampaguita



Series: Adventures of a Child Guardian [2]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Cayde is a DadTM, Cayde-6 Lives (Destiny), Child Guardian, Child!Guardian (Destiny), Daiane Jaaj, Gen, bc i have no timeline in my head, child oc, idk if this would be canon compliant or not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:14:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24569074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieSampaguita/pseuds/RosieSampaguita
Summary: Zavala just wants to start this Vanguard meeting with no hiccups. But Daiane Jaaj, the six-year-old Guardian seems to have other ideas as she stands at the end of the Vanguard table wearing Cayde's cloak with an excited grin on her face. Cayde is simultaneously dying of cuteness and laughter and Ikora is definitely marking this as one of her favorite meetings.
Series: Adventures of a Child Guardian [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775857
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	Cayde's "Double"

**Author's Note:**

> Me: Write an in-order storyline. Brain: Hey, what about this completely random situation that has almost zero context? Me: Well, I guess this is what I'm writing.
> 
> Daiane Jaaj is a half-human, half-Awoken Guardian who was rezzed at age six. I'll have an official bio and story up for her soon but this is just a random snippet that wouldn't leave me alone :P Hope you enjoy!

“Are we ready to begin this meeting?” Zavala asked, peering up from his tablet to find Ikora snickering. The Awoken commander raised a brow, normally _Cayde_ is the one laughing before a meeting is even scheduled but Ikora? That was a rare sight as she usually kept all humorous antics outside of official business.

“I’m ready to begin,” Ikora said smoothly, hiding her smile but not the laughter in her eyes. “What about you, Cayde?” 

Zavala followed his fellow Vanguard’s eyes towards Cayde’s usual spot at the end of the Vanguard table only to see…

The Child Guardian, Daiane Jaaj standing on a stool while wearing Cayde’s cloak. “Hmm? Oh! Uh, yes, Auntie Ko- I mean, Auntie Ikora! I am Uncle Cayde-” The little one summoned her Ghost who had a crude red paint job “-And this is Auntie Sundance!”

A laugh choked in Zavala’s throat. He wasn’t sure if the urge to laugh came from how serious Daiane’s face was as she tried to mimic Cayde’s stance or the thought of who would have come up with this idea. In all honesty, it was an equal chance of who mentioned the idea first.

_Incoming message, Zavala._ His Ghost informed before displaying a written text on the tablet in his hands.

_[Hey, Big Blue! Don’t think I didn’t hear that laugh! Ikora owes me Glimmer now! Ha!]_

Zavala ignored the urge to roll his eyes or sigh.

_[And before you say anything, this was Lil Dee-Dee’s plan, okay? She was preeeeetty intent on subbing for me this meeting. She says I’m not getting enough sunlight, can you believe that? Anyways, just give her five minutes and put her down for naps. I got a feed hooked up to Tigger so Sundance and I can ignore you from a distance.]_

Now Zavala rolled his eyes. At least Sundance would keep Cayde up to date on whatever is discussed. Truth be told, the items on this meeting’s dockets weren’t _too_ important so Cayde wasn’t missing too much.

_[I say let’s do it.]_ Ikora’s message popped up on screen. _[We already know of Cayde’s childlike manners, having an actual child sitting with us should be no different, right?]_

_[Hey! Ikora! You’re supposed to be on my side!]_

_[Sorry, this line is reserved for Vanguard members only, please get off this line or I will have my Hidden track you down and bring you in for suspicious activity.]_

_[Ouch. And here I was telling everyone you were my favorite Warlock.]_

To prevent further distraction, Zavala had his Ghost silence the group chat and cleared his throat to nod at “Cayde”.

“Thank you for joining us today, Cayde.” Zavala nodded, holding back another chuckle as Daiane puffed her chest and crossed her arms. Cayde’s cloak was wrapped around her shoulders and the hood was _far_ too big for her head. Half her face was covered by the hood and the cloak looked more like a blanket than anything.

“The first thing on the docket-”

“Um, Uncle Commander Zava, sir? What’s a docket? Is that for ships? Are we going to the Hangar?”

Ikora and Zavala shared a look before concealing a laugh. Zavala cleared his throat and resisted the smile that fought to grow on his lips. “N-no, Daia- ahem, Cayde. A docket is a list.”

“The docket helps us figure out what we need to discuss and in which order we need to do it in.” Ikora adds, a warm smile on her face.

“Ohhh,” Daiane’s head tilted a bit to the side “That’s cool! But why does it sound like ‘docks’? Or ‘ducks’?”

Zavala re-opened his tablet.

_[Are you sure you didn’t clone yourself, Cayde? I can hardly tell the difference between you and Daiane.]_

_[Hey! I’ll have you know, I take that as a compliment!]_

“I can tell you about languages later,” Ikora chuckled, “But for now I believe we need to address some complaints made by a local civilian district about some Guardians wrecking a parking lot in an attempt to show off.”

Zavala nodded slowly and glanced at his tablet. “I’ve already contacted our usual clean-and-repair companies to clean up the mess but the Guardians who made the mess have yet to give me a report on their actions.”

“I’ve successfully identified them as a Warlock and Hunter duo. I’ve reached out to both of them but neither have given me an excuse for their actions. As one of the Guardians is a Warlock, I can determine the best course of action for discipline but as the other is a Hunter, it’s up to Cayde to decide the Hunter’s punishment.”

Ikora and Zavala both looked to Daiane expectantly. Neither were expecting her to make a decision. Afterall, the parking lot incident Ikora had mentioned was fabricated on the spot. Whatever ideas Daiane came up with would either turn into a lesson on fair discipline or the consequences behind impersonating someone else.

And also to make Cayde panic and think he hadn’t read the correct report.

“Put the Hunter in timeout and take away their favorite guns?” Daiane replied with minimal hesitation. 

Briefly, Zavala heard a choked, mechanical wheeze that told him Cayde was most likely hiding in the rafters. He glanced at Ikora who had a veiled look of surprise on her face.

Ikora turned back to Daiane, “...Are you suggesting we refuse this Hunter the ability to travel outside the City and to temporarily remove their weapons-”

“And toys!”

“-and...toys, until they learn their lesson?”

“Mhmm! Oh! And also no favorite snacks! Only the gross healthy foods!”

_[This child is a tyrant-]_ Cayde’s message pinged on Zavala’s tablet and had to stifle another laugh.

“Is that all?” Ikora asked, amusement plainly showing on her face now.

“Mmmm, yeah. Is it break time yet? I’m hungy. Do we have snacks?”

“Well, there’s a small chest near the console to your left you usually keep snacks in.” Ikora grinned, gesturing towards a large mechanical console.

_[You knew about that?!]_ Cayde messaged, sending several emojis conveying betrayal.

Daiane clapped her hands and jumped off the stool. The cloak trailed behind her dramatically as she raced to the cache. She scrunched her nose when she got to the chest and found it locked. She summoned Tigger into her hand and after a moment of silent communication between the two of them, the child Guardian entered a code which successfully opened the cache.

Giggles floated through the Vanguard Hall as she raided the snacks, looking for anything with gummy texture or overloaded in sugar crystals.

As Daiane lavished herself in the spoils of her newfound loot, Zavala and Ikora reconvened at the table. “I believe we should end early and reschedule for another time.” Zavala said, letting himself smile freely now that Daiane was occupied.

“Agreed.” Ikora chuckled, watching Daiane pick out everything from the box before sorting them into “yes”, “maybe”, and “no” piles. “You should check your tablet, by the way.” She grinned, mischief sparkling in her brown eyes. “Cayde is having something of a meltdown. I think you’ll want to experience this yourself.”

Zavala mirrored her grin for a moment before opening his tablet. 

_[How long have you known about that stash?! Now I’m gonna have to move all my caches! Or wait no, Daiane might get hungry and come looking for snacks. Shoot, I need to get kid-friendly snacks in there. Stuff she won’t fill up on.]_

_[!!!!!!! Ikora!!! What have you been teaching her! Look at this! {IMAGE} She sent me the pleading emoji and a picture of the snack box! You’ve been teaching her emotional manipulation, haven’t you!? Now I have no choice but to give her the code! I hope you’re happy.]_

_[And now she’s doing her happy song!! [AUDIO FILE: FORWARD} Isn’t this the song you taught her, Zavala? Least that’s what she ends with. I think she’s becoming something of a remix creator. I’m so proud :’)]_

_[No!!!! She found the yummy dried fruits!! I’ve been b e t r a y e d, someone stop her and put her down for a nap before she eats all of them! I’m saving those mango ones for the holidays!]_

“I believe we can let her pick out her snacks for a few more minutes before we ‘continue’, yes?” Zavala asked Ikora, amusement twinkling in his eyes as they watched Daiane shove all the unwanted snacks back into the box before creating a pouch with the cloak to carry all the snacks in.

“I think she’s almost ready to begin again. We should stop her after snack number two before getting her to sleep.” Ikora replied, laughing softly as Daiane tried multiple times to balance a sizeable pile in the small pouch she made.

Daiane waddled back to the Vanguard table and walked up to Ikora and Zavala before grinning widely at them. “Here you go!” She grinned, showing off the gaps in her mouth from recently lost teeth. She held out a gummy bag and a chocolate bar for Ikora then gave some dried fruit and a juice box to Zavala. “I got snacks for you too!” 

With that, she turned around and trotted her way back to the stool to begin chewing on the gummies she saved for herself.

_[That’s it, I’m dead. I just died from cuteness, here’s the coordinates where you can find my body. Have fun searching for the next Hunter Vanguard, you two.]_

The next few minutes passed quickly. The two Vanguard discussed the actual contents of their meeting out of Daiane’s hearing range while setting up a live feed for Cayde to remain updated. Daiane finished her snacks (as did Zavala and Ikora once Daiane expressed concern for them not eating enough when she saw their snacks were untouched). Soon, Daiane’s head began bobbing up and down in an effort to not seem sleepy.

Seeing as Daiane’s limit for acting had been reached, Cayde swung himself down from the ceiling and scooped the little Guardian into his arms as she almost slumped onto the table in front of her. 

“Thanks for stepping in for me, kiddo.” Cayde chuckled, gently rubbing his hand up and down Daiane’s back as she plopped her head on his shoulder and snuggled into him. She mumbled something as she wrapped her arms around his neck to grab onto the cloak around his shoulders. (Normally, she’d hide her face in his cloak when she napped but seeing as Cayde was currently wearing _her_ cloak, she just pushed the hood back and hid her face in his neck.)

“You should think about joining an acting club when you’re older,” Cayde continued as he strode over to his fellow Vanguards. “Ya had Zavala and Ikora clueless the _entire_ time, I’m proud of you, kiddo.”

He placed a quick kiss to her temple and rocked her to sleep. He was still slightly surprised how easily that motion came to him but he _was_ a dad in a previous life, wasn’t he? A few more minutes into the meeting, Cayde briefly thought of finding someplace soft to set Daiane down for her nap but decided against it. He was the _master_ of multi-tasking, carrying a sleeping child while not-listening to a boring meeting was easy.

And besides, Daiane always gave the best sleep-hugs.


End file.
